My first week of early rising

[Jon Tweddle]

Hi all

It's been a week of early rising for me now, and I'm pleased to say that I haven't missed a day.
Two or three times I've had to drag my self out of bed, but I have some how managed.
I have been getting up at 6am as aposed to 9 or 10, and feel great for it!
I do hope it gets easier tho.
I would love just to wake up and be awake and not get the strong urge just to ignore my alarm and go back to sleep for a few hours.
If there is anyone thinking of early rising, then I would deffinately reccomend it, and I find posting on here helps because if othrer people are aware of what you are doing then it gives you more motivation not to fail.
Anyway thanks for reading my babble, and you'll have to excuse my bad grammer and spelling (a result of leaving school when I was 14!) I'm sure it will improve with reading books, which is what I'm doing for the first time in my life now.
I supose I could use my extra 3-4 hours a day for that.
Anyway I'm babbling again.

Cheers
Jon

[Zukin]

Congratulations Jon!

Keep up the good work!

[backpocket]

Nice job. I'd call out the marching band and play you a drumline, but some online forums are too limited.

[R0b]

Congratulations! I started early rising when I lived in Florida a few years ago and was training for a marathon. It as just too hot to run that far unless I did it at 6am. What I noticed is that when I stayed up late, I tended to goof off - search the web, watch tv, etc, but when I got up early, I did productive stuff. It's changed my life.

Keep up the great work!

Rob

[Akashic_Librarian]

I get up at 6:30ish every morning during school days, on weekends it unfortunately goes to pot because I have no discipline. Plus I can't do anything that early in the morning, because my family shout at me haha.

[elastigirl]

hows it going jon?

[LifeFirst]

I'm going to do this starting tomorrow. There were so many chances where I could have gotten up early. But I always felt like I need my 6-8 hours of sleep you know. Just can't get by on 3-4 hours. And I don't really get sleepy around 3 AM so....but I'm still going to do this.

[Alex2007]

Originally Posted by LifeFirst

I'm going to do this starting tomorrow. There were so many chances where I could have gotten up early. But I always felt like I need my 6-8 hours of sleep you know. Just can't get by on 3-4 hours. And I don't really get sleepy around 3 AM so....but I'm still going to do this.

I would say that every person needs minimum 8 and maximum 10 hours of GOOD sleep before he can function properly during the rest of the day. Those who deprive themselves from good sleep are missing in life.

Get up early but go to bed early. Don't watch television, don't read, don't read 2 hours before you go to sleep. Just cool down during these 2 hours with light activities.

Z
Alex

[Jon Tweddle]

Originally Posted by LifeFirst

I'm going to do this starting tomorrow. There were so many chances where I could have gotten up early. But I always felt like I need my 6-8 hours of sleep you know. Just can't get by on 3-4 hours. And I don't really get sleepy around 3 AM so....but I'm still going to do this.

Hi LifeFirst

I know what you meen about thinking you need 6-8 hrs sleep a night.
I've spent my whole life thinking that if I don't get at least 8 hrs then I wont be able to function properly.
But over the last 10 days I've found that to be wrong.
After a couple of days of getting up at 6am I found that it was alot easier to go to sleep earlier.
I was like yourself, going to bed between 2-3am so it was hard at first to get used to, I take a book to bed now around 10-11pm, and after a bit of reading I'm usually stone out.
I'm probably getting between 5-7 hours sleep a night now and I feel great, infact much better and more alert than I've ever felt!
With me getting up early I'm getting a good nights sleep when I go to bed because my bodys put in a 17 hr shift.
I think the key is quality rather than quantity of sleep.
Oh and don't lay in bed debating on wether to get up or not, because you'll talk yourself out of it. Just stretch and spring up out of your pit.
I have my alarm a few yards away from the bed, so I've got to get up.
I also wouldn't advise afternoon naps, the one time that I had an afternoon nap I found it really hard to get to sleep at night, so now I'm going to give my body a chance to adapt to my new found sleeping pattern, so I've ruled out naps for another couple of weeks, (not that I feel like having them anymore.)
I'm certainly no expert on the subject, but this is what I feel like after 10 days.

Anyway good luck, and let us know how you are getting on

Cheers
Jon

[LifeFirst]

Alright, today it didn't work out too well.


I got up at 5 AM, didn't need an alarm or anything. Just woke up and got up immediately. I went to eat something and then check some things on my computer....and then I had no idea what else I should do. So I just went back to bed to lie down for a while. But then the next time I opened my eyes it was 9PM, I was pretty dissappointed.

I think tomorrow when I get up the first time I should just immediately head to the shower or something, that way I won't go back to bed.

[Jon Tweddle]

Originally Posted by LifeFirst

Alright, today it didn't work out too well.


I got up at 5 AM, didn't need an alarm or anything. Just woke up and got up immediately. I went to eat something and then check some things on my computer....and then I had no idea what else I should do. So I just went back to bed to lie down for a while. But then the next time I opened my eyes it was 9PM, I was pretty dissappointed.

I think tomorrow when I get up the first time I should just immediately head to the shower or something, that way I won't go back to bed.

Hi LifeFirst

Don't be to dissapointed, after all you did the hard part with no problems (getting Up!!)
I know what you mean about needing something to do, I've nearly cracked a couple of times because I was just sitting at my desk, bored and getting more and more sleepy.
So after a 3 or 4 days of early rising I made a point of planning to do something with my extra time.
Currently I am trying to build a web site, and also learning about different types of computer programmes.
I think next week I'm going to start a 30 day trial of going jogging for 20 mins every morning.

Good luck for tomorrow morning
Jon

[Sam988]

Originally Posted by Alex2007

Get up early but go to bed early. Don't watch television, don't read, don't read 2 hours before you go to sleep. Just cool down during these 2 hours with light activities.

I find that reading a book is very good very making me get tired and ready to sleep.

Say i'm laying in my bed without feeling tired. Then i just take a book and start reading it. And when i start feeling like i can't keep up understanding what i read, i put the book on my side, turn off the lights, and sleep.

[Honeywith4bees]

I don't have much problem waking early. I can get up every morning including weekends at 5:30 or 6 am, but at night I crash hard by 9:30PM. I just don't have the patience or ability to do anything after that. I also find it a bit harder to get up early now that it's getting light later. The sun wasn't up til after 7am this morning and it was pretty chilly out!! The best part of my day is my early morning jog/walk, but it gets more difficult with winter coming.

[Ree]

Jon, it helps to have a to-do list that you make up the day before. Or even at odd moments during the day. Often it occurs to me out of the blue that I need to .... post my September invoices for example ..... so i jot it down on my calendar on my weekly things to do list and then, when I have some free time I consult that list. These are things that might otherwise be forgotten.

Just a suggestion for the next time you successfully get up early and then find yourself with nothing to do Congratulations on all your success by the way!

[CaptainStubbs]

Rock on! I have tried to get in the habit of waking at 6am and have succeeded for a full week before falling back into a "wake up as late as possible before work 7:30am" routine.

I want to wake early so I can work for a couple of hours on my web business every single day.... I will wake at 6am tomorrow!!!!!!

[rbhambha]

Jon,

I would recommend starting off your day with some meditation. Just try it out, it won't hurt. I bet it will improve your early mornings 10 fold! Just thought I'd make a suggestion

Cheers,

Rahul

[Trustme]

Getting up early has had a huge impact on my life in terms of self-respect, well being, productivity etc.

I actually look forward to getting up early when I go to bed. Be sure to make the first 30 minutes or so as enjoyable as possible under these circumstances. I usually have a nice breakfast, read the newspapers, have a nice cup of coffee.... then I start with my work.

Getting up early + having to do something I don't like right away is just too much for me.

[Jack Benson]

I made the mistake of starting my early riser program on Friday. I loved it Friday morning, started my blog, got some productive work done.

It's Saturday AM and I'm hurting bad.

I did get out of bed though, so I'm still on track.

How many people were able to make it through all 30 days?

[Stephen]

Originally Posted by Jon Tweddle

Hi all



I have been getting up at 6am as aposed to 9 or 10

Obviously some of you dont have any young children. lol

Best alarm clock around.

[Trezker]

I was an awesome early riser as a kid. My parents had trouble staying in bed 'til half six. I learned to play somewhat quietly though, probably because by older sisters complained but I can't remember.

[Jonathan Mead]

This is something I'm working on too Jon, so we're in it together!

I was waking up consistently at 5:30am for about 3 solid months in a row at the end of last year, but somewhere along the lines I fell off track. I started sleeping in till 8 or 9 again.

I've managed to wake up around 7-7:30 the past week and I'm working on gradually waking up earlier every day. Persistence is the key and remember what's important, rather than the feeling of urgency to go back to sleep.

Good luck mate.

[Ninja]

Nice job!

As for tips... What really helped me when I was trying to become an early riser, were a few changes in my diet. Instead of drinking normal tea in the evening, I drink herbal 'night melange' that doesn't have caffeine in it. I also cut back on sugar (but did not entirely quit... it just tastes too good!) during the day. I'm not that sensitive to caffeine (I did some testing and I'm okay as long as I don't drink it right before bedtime), but I did find out I'm quite sensitive to sugar. It doesn't make it harder for me to fall asleep, but it does make me groggy in the morning. I'm not sure why, but it does.

[verbors]

Did any of you check the date on this thread. The thread started almost a year ago !